West Virginia is truly beautiful. From what I’ve seen, it consists almost entirely of forests that cover hills and valleys, ridges and canyons. The only thing is, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of variety. Just non-stop pristine countryside. I was running on country roads, but saw no mountain mammas.

Today was very hilly, including some longish and fairly steep climbs. Once again, it wore me out a bit. If my legs weren’t working hard to get up the hills, they were being pounded as I descended.

I have noticed lots of very small oil wells throughout these hills. There is a strong smell of crude oil as you pass them. It’s classic Jed Clampett territory. I can imagine Jed living and hunting in these hills, until he struck black gold and moved to Beverly Hills with Granny, Ellie May, and Jethro.

It was cool early, but reached 30C later this afternoon. I can live with that. September certainly has been the month when the seasons start changing.

PS My official position is about 10 km south-west of where the tracker is showing me.